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Brown v. Board of Education

Oliver Brown and several other parents of black schoolchildren in Topeka, Kansas claimed that racial segregation of public schools denied black schoolchildren equal protection of the law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. On May 17, 1954 the court ruled in favor of Brown by finding that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

The decision was an historic ruling regarding segregation of public places. In ending segregation of public schools, the decision overturned Plessy's "separate but equal" doctrine and paved the way for desegregation of other types of public places in the next two decades.

Specifics of the case

Appellants: Oliver Brown and several other parents of black schoolchildren